Little things, like pretty blue tiles.
Still makes me cringe to hear someone call me a “foodie” or watch myself on camera, but loved my experience too much not to share. You’ll see the staff at simplethings and know why everything there looks and tastes so good. And yes, I ate the entire sandwich (another great stop on the LA tour) and stand by the fact that the caramel was an excellent surprise.
This week we met Christine Choi, LACMA’s communications manager, at simplethings, one of her favorite lunch spots near work.
Simplethings’ focus is on fresh-made sandwiches and pies, simple things indeed. But the basic offerings belie the fact that the people behind this restaurant and pie shop have been in the business for a long time. Carrie Cusack had been baking savory and sweet pies in Los Angeles prior to this venture, which opened late 2010.
Located in a bustling part of West Third Street, the restaurant also offers soups and salads. If you happen to be a lover of pie, or want a whole ton of it, they do custom orders.
I love this Christine! Takes me back to my neighborhood in one scene. And you look lovely as usual.
An Ode
The palm trees from my old apartment
The Cobb. This looks like a dream after all my kimchi jiggaes.
The Santa Monica pier, with the Santa Monica Mountains in the foggy distance
Anyone who can name this deli from this photo is my kindred eating spirit
California poppies
A great wine shop on Fountain run by three girlfriends.
If you can’t find a cd or movie at Amoeba, it doesn’t exist.
His books set in LA kill me.
The Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Festival - a gentle yet rollicking afternoon of music
Weekly hikes in the Hollywood hills
Bikers on Pacific Coast Highway
Summer picnics and concerts at the Bowl
The still-operational Angels Flight in Bunker Hill. Oh Dante.
Los Angeles movie palace, built in 1931.
Things left to do in Los Angeles
Ride Angels Flight? Check!
It lasted about 45 seconds and was worth the quarter.
I kept wishing to see Bunker Hill the way John Fante did.
The next best thing was picnicking with Mar at Angels Knoll where we took photos on the bench featured in 500 Days of Summer.
And these kids from usc film school asked us to be in their webisode. somehow we signed consent forms and they supposedly filmed us giggling over photos. please do not be surprised if we become the next! big! things! in hollywood.
And then we drove over to El Cid to be in the audience for The Moth. There were 2 good storytellers, 1 decent one, 1 woman who almost broke down on stage, and some pretty terrible ones. We had to keep madly clapping through it all to show solidarity or support or whatever. All in all, a 6.6 first-time Moth experience.
But a 9.6 day.
a split billboard on sunset blvd. i couldn’t tell you which ad was replacing which, but my favorite of the three is the littler, normal-sized one in the front there.
I really have to stop taking photos while driving…no good!
I’m still reveling in my wonderful trip overseas, but I’m in Los Angeles for the week and of course I just can’t get enough of it. I drove down Sunset Blvd where I used to live and I was a bit surprised that Sushi Kingz is still in business. How is that possible with a name and a logo like that?
Anyway, this is a photo of Neptune’s Net, the Malibu institution as famous for its fish and chips as it is for the group of bikers who seem to frequent it every weekend. The Pacific Ocean is to our right, but we needed some variety after watching all that blue and instead turned left to the scene you see here. Not a shabby way to pass your Sunday afternoon, eh?
Took a walk down to the Malibu grottos and my oh my what a pretty sight we saw. I know this doesn’t look like much, and that’s precisely why I love it. Because you begin to forget that a lot more of LA used to look like this once upon a time.
Was walking along the Miracle Mile a couple weekends ago when I saw this.
Pieces of the Berlin wall in Los Angeles.
Wow.
Reminds me why I’m a city girl at heart.
Hello sweet sunflower. You made me happy the other day.
at Food + Lab on Santa Monica Blvd
Weekend
Weekends like the one I just had are the reason why I start to miss LA in the most devastating manner when I’m abroad. I was in the mountains, I was at the beach, I visited museums, I saw live music, I ate terrific food, I saw some crazy people, and as always, I discovered new pockets of charm and grit in my sprawling metropolis.
My friend, The Organizer (she is a professional organizer and aspiring candy maker!), is moving to Raleigh in 1 week after having spent the better part of her 20s in LA. I went to her last girls night out on Saturday at Three Clubs, a tiny little dance place on Vine and Santa Monica Blvd.
Irrelevant side note: She made it sound super mysterious in her text: “There’s no name, just a neon sign that says ‘cocktails.’” When I found it, I remembered passing by this place a gazillion times when I lived in Hollywood and thinking it looked like a real seedy joint. It turns out that the club’s claim to fame is its role in the movie Swingers, which I don’t remember at all except for Heather Graham’s Rollergirl outfit, and after paying the $5 cover, I saw inside that it wasn’t so seedy after all.
Anyway, my friend The Organizer is leaving LA for good. She and her boyfriend, both East Coast transplants, quit their full-time jobs and decided to replant their roots where housing prices are not insane and a middle class income isn’t wiped out by the cost of living. I completely understand their decision.
Yet I can’t imagine doing that myself. It’s not like I plan or want to live the rest of my life here, but I always envision myself returning to LA. Despite my extreme Francophile tendencies, Korean background, and genetically inherited wanderlust (my parents gave birth to me in the UK and took me on a grand tour of Europe when i was less than a year old!), I always consider myself an LA girl, or more broadly, a California girl. (Whether or not I am the kind of California Girl the Beach Boys sang about is another subject.)
I asked The Organizer if she was getting preemptively sad or nostalgic, and she said no. “I’ll be back in August for a wedding,” she said. But I know already that it won’t be the same for her, though I don’t think she will mind in the least. After all, this is the woman who has been planning her cross country move for more than one year and was over LA even before that.
My former roommate, a girl whose friendship I value dearly, is on the same path out of LA. She’s been loving life here since our university days, but I know she has been squirming and plotting to get back to the East Coast for a long time now.
I suppose for these two, the LA phase of their lives is over, or pretty close to it. For me, I don’t think LA will ever be a phase. I may not always live here for long periods of time, but I feel that it will remain an active place in my mind, not one associated with the past.
When Joan Didion was here for LAT Festival of Books a few years ago, someone asked her if she still considered herself a Californian after years (decades?) of living in NYC. She replied, without one second of hesitation, “I always consider myself a California girl. I still renew my California driver’s license.” And that, plus her writing, is why I am in love with her.
